Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside!
Come inside, the show’s about to start
guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you’ll get your money’s worth
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
- – Emerson, Lake and Palmer (edited)
“Top Democrats and Republicans in Congress prepared new proposals to avert a government debt default and a potential global financial crisis.”
That’s the lead paragraph from a story in today’s paper. What should scare you is when Democrats and Republicans agree on something the public generally gets screwed. I believe that both sides realized that they set up this “battle” and now that the public is watching they are not sure how to get out from all of the rhetoric that they have been spreading. What both sides agree on is that they both want desperately to get re-elected and regain power. Even a little power is better than none and they are more than willing to squander our money, our children’s money, and our grandchildrens’ money to maintain their power. Here are few facts as I see them:
PennLive ran a story this week with the following headline:
You would expect a story with this headline to contain some good news for taxpayers and perhaps it does, but I am too jaded by the desire, no compulsion to give away my hard earned money to others. The story is about a solar project completed by the Lycoming County School District.
“The project is expected to reduce the district’s annual electricity use by 700,000 kilowatt-hours and act as a hedge against future escalation of the cost of electricity.”
I had not planned for this to be a series, but somehow this story, like the Pirates themselves, just won’t go away. First of all congratulations to the Pirates for a great series against the powerful Boston Red Sox as they won two out of three games, taking the series. They are now one game over 0.500 after playing 77 games which is by far their best showing in years. There are actually 15 teams with worse winning percentages than the Pirates. I cannot say that Pittsburgh has caught Pirate fever, but even some local broadcasters have begun speaking about them in more positive terms. After 18 losing seasons in a row we are getting excited, somewhat, to have a “winning” team this late in the season. Oh and the Pirates are only four games back from the division leading Milwaukee.
The following video was from a blog (AndyLogic) with the above title and is pretty well done and should be required viewing for all school students as a balance to the statist views now taught.
The only edit that I would suggest is where the “bill” is sent to George. Our politicians have long figured out that by withholding the tax money from our paychecks BEFORE we get the money is a pretty effective way of hiding their theft. We don’t truly miss what we never had. I have found this despicable practice used when a labor union that I have not voluntarily joined takes their “fair share” of my earnings. There are efforts in some states to cease payroll deductions for union dues. What should the state government act as a collector for the labor unions? You might be able to take an educated guess the party affiliation of the legislature and governor of those states.
This is a rather simple equation that should be used whenever a group suggests that something won’t have an impact on consumers or expresses a desire to tax (or charge fees) for some industry or demonize profits from some large industry.
C = Cost to produce something
P = Profit needed by company to make it worth the risk to produce something
PC = Price to consumer
The basis for my earlier post Kick the Rich Down the Road drew from an article from Walter Williams who drew from the work of Bill Whittle. I found Mr. Whittle’s video titled “Eat the Rich” and thought that I’d share it with you. I am going out on a limb here, but should you be able to snag one of your liberal/progressive friends or family members and “persuade” (please go no further than duct-taping them to a chair) them to watch this they just might stare to get it.
Politicians succeed by engaging us with truths (usually only half truths) to get us riled up for their cause which is ultimately about getting them reelected. Few politicians care about anything more than achieving this goal. They avoid the tough decisions while decrying that the other side won’t make the tough decisions. The good news for American citizens is that we have a free press that sorts out complex issues and will not let politicians get away with the half truths. Okay that was dripping with sarcasm, but I am a dreamer and that is the way our country is supposed to work.
The recent headlines regarding General Electrics profits contrasted with their ability to paying any taxes in the United States had a lot of us scratching our heads. I am sure there are no direct connections between GE’s ability to curry favor with the Obama Administration and their prominance in U.S. politics. I am also sure that the fact that their former ownership of NBC and that network’s almost cult-like support of all things Obama played no factor in any subsidies that the company received directly or indirectly via customers who use their products. As you know I am a thinker and a visual guy so I pulled out my old process diagram system and put together what capitalism might have looked like then (perhaps the turn of twentieth century)…
Pirate "ace" Kevin Correia
I know that it’s still spring training for the Pirates, but I nearly veered off of the road yesterday when I heard the stats for Pirates’ starting pitcher and $2 million dollar man, Ross Ohlendorf. In his last outing Ohlendorf started, pitched a little over four innings, gave up six runs on 9 hits (including three home runs) for an Earned Run Average of 10.05. No one can doubt his optimism,
“Still not as good as I’d like to be, but I still thought it was better than last time. I’ve been up in the zone too much. I know I’m overthrowing some. That’s a big part of it.”
